


As the World Comes to an End (I'll Be Here to Hold Your Hand)

by insatiablycurious



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-16
Updated: 2015-06-16
Packaged: 2018-04-04 12:37:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4137837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/insatiablycurious/pseuds/insatiablycurious
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She's pretty sure Laura Hollis is going to be the death of her, but man, what a way to go. (In which Danny Lawrence just wants a day off with sweatpants and pizza but instead she's running dangerous sleep-depriving errands for a tiny tyrant that she's completely in love with.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	As the World Comes to an End (I'll Be Here to Hold Your Hand)

**Author's Note:**

> I recently re-read Matt Fraction's run of Hawkeye and the amount of done Danny has been so far in season two reminds me so much of Clint Barton's level of done-ness that I had to write this. Forgive the shifting point of views, but if you've ever read Hawkeye you'll kind of understand the set up. Third person with Danny's first person narration in brackets.

i.

Danny sprints as fast as she can down the hallway of the library.

To her left, a huge burst of fire engulfs a bookcase. It topples over, blocking her way forward and sending ashes and burning books everywhere. She skids to a halt and looks around. Behind her, she can hear the fire-throwing Draugr getting closer and to her right is the large bay window overlooking the grounds.

"Shit," she mutters to herself.

She glances behind her and sees the group of Draugr rounding the corner, their fists already smoldering.

"Aw, more fire."

She turns and sprints in the direction of the window. She's only on the second floor, but it's still a twenty-foot drop.

But _fire_.

She picks up speed and drops her shoulder and with a loud panicky yell, she smashes through the window and dives twenty feet to the grass below.

-

[Okay.]

[This looks bad.]

[I mean, you start off a story getting chased by fire flinging undead creatures and wind up talking about diving out of a window you think it's going to be a bad story, right?]

[Well, you're not entirely wrong.]

[I mean, it started out decently enough. All I had to do was break into the library and steal a book, something I've done dozens of times since this whole mess with the dean got started and I got involved with one Laura Hollis.]

[But then, the _fire_.]

[One minute, I'm grabbing a book that Laura needs and the next I'm nearly getting turned into a souffle and running for my literal life from these glowing grey menaces.]

[I mean what the _hell_ , man?]

[But anyway, the point is, it _looks_ bad.]

[But trust me.]

[It feels much worse.]

-

Danny groans loudly and rolls over onto her back.

"Okay, that's a dislocated shoulder," she mutters, glaring up at the cloudy sky.

She double checks to make sure the book is still tucked into the waist of her pants before gingerly standing up.

"Jesus," she groans.

She rubs the back of her neck with her undamaged arm. She's still in one piece.

She glances back up at the broken and flaming window and sees a few of the Draugr watching her from the giant hole.

"Yeah, you assholes are cursed to stay in that building aren't you? Sucks to be you!" She calls out, flipping them the bird.

-

[Mature? No.]

[Deserved? Yes.]

-

"Hey, Hollis. I got that book you wanted," Danny calls out as soon as she arrives back at the manor.

She pushes the door open with her good arm and finds Laura hunched over the table glaring at a tattered roll of paper.

"Thanks, Danny! Now I can finally translate these dumb runes and figure out what that inscription at the bottom of the pit means," Laura replies, turning to take the book from Danny's hand.

She freezes.

"What happened? Your shoulder is all wonky and your face is really red. Like. Really red."

"Fire. Entirely too much fire. And I _may_ have had to jump out of a window and dislocated my shoulder in the process. Hey, where's Perry? I need her to pop it back into place for me," Danny replies.

Laura's face pales.

"Do I want to ask," she says.

"Probably not."

Laura gently takes the book out of her hand.

"Perry's in the kitchen. You should really get your shoulder taken care of. I can't believe you walked back here with it dislocated," she says, shaking her head and staring at her in awe.

Danny shrugs.

"It's nothing."

-

[That's a lie.]

[It hurt like hell.]

[But am I going to tell her that when she's making that cute face?]

[Absolutely not.]

[You see, I've been in love with Laura Hollis ever since she told me her favorite book was "Alice in Frankenstein: The Secret Garden" after one of our first lit classes and it's been a downward spiral ever since.]

-

"You know, you really should be more careful," Perry admonishes as she tapes up the last of Danny's cuts with gauze and white surgical tape.

"Believe me, I'm trying."

"Did you get any sleep last night?" Perry asks, leaning back and eyeing her suspiciously.

"No, Laura needed me to do recon on that nest of harpies. They're only active during the day so the night is the best time to observe them," Danny replies, avoiding Perry's stare.

"Is that where this came from?" Perry asks, poking a scrape on Danny's elbow and making her wince.

"Ouch! Watch it, Easy Bake!" She yelps. "And yes, it is. I slipped while I was running away from that bear."

"Be-" Perry cuts herself off with a loud sigh and then pinches the bridge of her nose. "You can say no, you know?"

"I know, but who else is going to help her?"

"I don't know. Kirsch? Theo? Mel? Carmilla?" Perry rattles off the list of names.

"Mel can't stand her, she's not going to drop everything to help. Kirsch is a bonehead, do I really need to explain why that won't work? Theo's ego is too big, he won't listen to what she has to say. And Carmilla..." Danny trails off with a scoff.

-

[Listen, I carried her heavy vampire ass out of a hell pit, across campus during an earthquake and up 6 flights of stairs back to her dorm room.]

[The least she could do is stop being lazy and keep her feet off the couch.]

[But no.]

-

Perry sighs again.

"Point taken."

She gets a look on her face that Danny can't read.

"When are you going to tell her?" She asks.

"Tell her what?" Danny feigns ignorance and averts her eyes. Perry frowns.

"Danny, you know perfectly well what I'm talking about."

-

[Leave it to Lola Perry to think that talking about feelings in the middle of a warzone is a good idea.]

-

"Per, it's not a good time. Plus there's the whole...Carmilla thing," Danny replies, gesturing vaguely with her hand.

"Just because Carmilla is interested in her does not mean that Laura returns those feelings," Perry reminds her, diplomatically.

"You don't know that."

"Neither do you, all the more reason for you to tell her-"

"Tell who what?" Laura asks from the doorway.

-

[Aw, Laura, timing.]

-

"Nobody."

"Nothing."

Perry and Danny answer simultaneously. Laura regards them with suspicion. 

"But you just said-"

"It's nothing, really. I was just advising Danny to speak with Mel about her attitude," Perry interjects.

"She really doesn't like me, does she?" Laura asks, turning to Danny.

"No, she does."

-

[No, she doesn't.]

-

"She just has issues with authority."

-

[Read as: she wants to _be_ the authority.]

-

Laura frowns.

"You probably shouldn't say anything to piss her off even further."

"Yeah, Perry. I probably shouldn't say anything," Danny agrees, turning to Perry.

Perry gives her a death glare because she knows she can't disagree without giving anything away.

"Fine. But if she moves on to _doing_ other things it's nobody's fault but your own," she advises.

-

[Low blow, Lola.]

-

 

ii.

Danny yawns as she pulls her sweatpants out of her dresser.

It had been a long day. Staying up all night to watch the harpies, getting chased by a bear, breaking into the library, getting chased by fire-throwing Draugr, jumping out of a window and then spending the day helping Laura translate those runes. She was ready for sweatpants, leftover pizza and some sleep.

Just as she starts to unbuckle her belt, her cell phone rings.

"Aw, phone," she mutters.

She reaches for it and Laura's face lights up the screen. She sighs.

"Hey, Laura, what's up?"

"Hey...I hate to bother you but something weird is going on here at the manor."

"Something...weird?"

"Yeah, we keep hearing weird noises and stuff keeps getting moved around."

There's a loud slamming sound that makes Laura squeak.

"Can you come over?" She asks.

"Yeah, yeah of course. I'll be right there," Danny replies.

She hangs up and looks down at her sweatpants.

"Later, pants. Later."

-

"Where the flippin' heck are they all coming from!?" Laura yelps from under the table.

"I don't know but we need to contain them!" LaFontaine calls back from behind the chair.

"HOW?" Danny yells, ducking as another poltergeist swoops at her head with a cackle.

"I don't know, you're supposed to be the monster hunter," LaFontaine snaps back.

Danny grumbles to herself and grabs for one of the books on the table. She cocks her arm back and hurls it at the poltergeist that had just tried to headbutt her.

The book goes straight through him, hits the wall and topples to the ground with a thud.

-

[Okay.]

[So I might have gotten in over my head with this one.]

 -

"Oh."

"Way to go, Xena."

Danny spins around to glare at Carmilla's head peaking over the couch.

"You're not helping, asshole."

"Not my job."

Danny groans and turns back to the poltergeist, who is attempting to dump a cup of coffee onto Perry's head.

"Aw, coffee, no."

She quickly grabs a different book off of the table, the one Laura had been reading when this whole mess apparently got started.

"I thought we established throwing books at it doesn't work?" LaFontaine asks, pulling Perry out of the way.

"Not what I'm doing this time, thanks for your concern." Danny grumbles back, furiously flipping through the pages until she finds what she's looking for. "Hollis, were you reading this out loud?"

"Uh, yeah? It helps me focus better. Why?"

-

[Reading Latin in front of old books is usually a bad idea, that's why.]

-

Danny reads one of the lines aloud and instantly the group of poltergeists disappear with an audible popping sound. Carmilla peaks back over the couch.

"Laura, what book is that?" Carmilla asks.

"I don't know. Something about the history of Silas's Supernatural Weirdness," Laura replies as she crawls out from under the table.

Danny closes the book with a snap and sighs.

"You're not supposed to read incantations out loud. Even if they're in a history book," she explains.

"Oh."

"Yeah."

Laura gives her a sheepish smile as Carmilla rolls her eyes and leaves the room, muttering something about needing a snack. LaFontaine follows her, guiding a still shaken up Perry out by her elbow.

"Thanks. For you know, fixing that," Laura says. Danny shrugs.

"Not a problem, it's what I'm here for."

Laura's smile drops slightly.

"That's not- I mean, you're not just here for that," she says as she takes a step closer. Danny's breath catches in her chest.

"No, I know. I know. I just-"

"Hey Laura, we're out of gauze?" LaFontaine calls from the doorway, making both Laura and Danny jump.

-

[You're killing me, LaF.]

[Seriously.]

-

Laura looks back up at Danny who sighs.

"I'll go get some more from the infirmary."

"It can wait til in the morning, you don't need-"

"Laura, Perry's kind of bleeding," LaFontaine interjects.

"I'll go, it's okay. I promise," Danny says softly.

Laura looks like she's about to protest but relents.

-

[Pants will have to wait a few more hours.]

[Though, I kind of wish I had put them on anyway.]

[For comfort.]

[The infirmary after dark is a bit of a nightmare.]

-

 

iii.

"Danny! Danny, wake up!"

Danny rolls over with a groan and plummets to the floor.

"Okay, ow."

-

[Falling asleep on my couch?]

[Not my best idea.]

-

"What time is it?" She asks, sitting up and groggily rubbing at her face.

"Nine," Laura replies.

"At night?!"

Laura looks at her like she's grown a second head before gesturing to the sunlight streaming through the lodge window.

"No, morning."

"Aw, I just went to sleep like two hours ago," Danny mutters. Laura looks concerned.

"Two hou- how long did it take you to get those medkits?"

Danny looks up at the ceiling.

"Like four hours? I don't know, I ran into some of those wraiths and then there was this goblin-"

Laura holds up her hand and shakes her head.

"I don't think I want to know. Listen, I hate to bother you but...well, nobody else wants to help."

"What's the problem?" Danny asks, reaching to turn on her coffee maker.

Laura immediately launches into an explanation about how those translated runes hinted at some sort of staff that could unto the mind control the giant fish god had on some of the students. The only problem was nobody else wants to go look for it because it's hidden in one of those creepy caverns by the lake.

"-and it's guarded by a troll."

Danny nearly chokes on her coffee.

"A what now?"

"A troll."

"Like-"

"Yeah, the big mean kind not the creepy doll kind. I have a plan, though."

Danny sighs and looks down at Laura.

"Can I at least finish my coffee first?"

-

[Don't give me that look.]

[You try saying no to that face.]

[Seriously, I would fling myself into a pit of seven trolls if it meant she'd look at me like that again.]

[Well, maybe not literally.]

[But seriously, she's so pretty and smart and cute and awesome and-]

[I have a problem.]

-

 

iv.

"Oh my god! Danny! You're bleeding!"

Danny slumps sideways against the doorway to the manor library as Laura leaps to her feet. She holds up the ancient wooden staff.

"I got the staff, though."

"Screw the staff, are you okay?" Laura asks, reaching to brush Danny's hair out of her face.

"M'fine. Jus' need to sit."

Danny limps over to the couch and flops down. Her head was pounding, her side was screaming in pain and she's pretty sure she sprained her ankle.

-

[Trolls are assholes.]

[Massive, drooling assholes.]

[With clubs.]

[Seriously, fuck those guys.]

-

Laura takes the staff from her and drops it to the floor.

"What about-"

"You're bleeding really badly," Laura interrupts.

She sits down next to Danny and gently reaches for the hem of Danny's shirt.

"You need to take this off," she commands.

-

[Not exactly how I pictured this going in my head, I'm not going to lie.]

-

Danny doesn't miss the way Laura's cheeks turn bright pink as she helps Danny strip her bloody shirt off.

"What happened?" Laura asks softly, gently grazing her fingers over the gash in Danny's side. Danny winces.

"Did you know trolls have claws? Because I sure as hell didn't."

Laura pales.

"Oh god, this is all my fault. I sent you to get the staff and got you all bloodied up-"

"Laura."

"-and I've been sending you on all these errands for me without thinking and-"

"Laura, it's okay."

"-and you haven't been sleeping because you've been doing things for me at night too-"

"I love you."

Laura freezes mid-sentence.

"What?"

"I love you, Laura. And I'd do all of that stuff again if you asked me to. I would. I'll do anything you want if it keeps you safe and happy," Danny explains.

Laura continues to stare at her.

-

[Okay.]

[This looks bad.]

[I basically just admitted to the love of my life that I'm in love with her and she's not responding.]

[You'd think a story like this would have an unhappy ending right?]

[Wrong.]

-

"I probably shouldn't have told you that but I just wanted you to know that you're not making me do anything I don't want to and I understand if you don't want me around as much but-"

Laura's mouth is on hers.

The kiss is soft at first, probably to get Danny to stop talking, but then it gets harder and more desperate. Laura's hands come up and press against her jaw and Danny's tangle in Laura's hair. 

They keep kissing, over and over again until Danny winces in pain. Laura pulls back.

"I'm sorry."

"No, don't be my ribs are just kind of-"

"Oh god. Oh my god. Oh crap. Okay. Okay, let me go get some gauze and I'll-" Laura rambles, jumping to her feet.

She rushes over to the doorway but then stops and turns back.

"I love you too," she says, smiling bashfully at Danny before turning and rushing off to find some gauze.

-

[See?]

[Happy.]

-

 

v.

"Hey babe!"

Danny spins around from where she's pouring herself a cup off coffee into Laura's TARDIS mug and finds Laura grinning at her.

"Hey!" She leans down and gently kisses her girlfriend before turning back to her coffee. "What's up?"

"So, there's this harpy nest by the student center..." Laura starts.

Danny sighs and looks back over at her.

"Is there?"

"Yeah, and they've been attacking any students that try to walk past. Perry says she's had to treat at least seven this week," Laura explains.

"You want me to clear it out, don't you?"

"I have a plan this time," Laura promises.

"Can I at least finish my coffee first?" Danny asks, lifting up the mug so it's eye level with Laura.

"Of course."

-

[She's so awesome.]


End file.
